Out of the Shell
by Befantastic
Summary: Massie Block has a boyfriend girls would kill for. But she'd kill to lose him. Oneshot


One of those real life onseshots I was bound to write. For two friends. I'd love a review. Song goes to Katy Perry. It wasn't even the inspiration.

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"_'Cause I used to be a shell. Yeah, I let him rule my world my world"_

_-Pearl, Katy Perry_

"You two are meant to be, like I am jealous!"

That's how it started.

"At prom, I thought you two looked like Barbie and Ken or something, just gorgeous."

That's how it usually went.

"You must of cried like a baby. I can't imagine being without my boyfriend after being with him everyday for almost a year."

That 's how it started to break.

"You're here. he's there and you all have all these issues. You're going to wait for him? Trust me, he's not waiting for you."

That's when she realized.

And when Massie Block met Cam Fisher, things basically were shot to hell.

That's how her year and a half long relationship with Derrick Harrington ended in a crazy, emotional, confusing mess.

Massie and Derrick were that couple that everyone envied. She was a freshman to his sophomore, in the late spring. Massie played lacrosse, Derrick ran track. She noticed his beautiful blonde hair whipping as he ran around the school, and was in awe. Derrick was interested in Claire Lyons, his social and physical equal, tall, blonde, the captain of the ax team.

"Derrick texted me guys, I am telling you, he wants me. It's so cute." Claire announced as the group sat tightly in a circle before their practice.

"I think that's so cute!" Alicia Rivera laughed, as she took the phone and inspected the message.

"Uh it would be cute, if he wasn't like my best friend. Imagine me dating the same boy who I used to do Halloween with and whose parents liked to make us look like twins." Claire sighed. "No, I've told Derrick he needs someone else. Someone not in our group. Like Massie." Claire's eyes zeroed in on the freshman who was half listening to see if she even had a chance with the boy she'd been watching for at least a month.

"Me?"

"Yes you, Derrick is a boy. You're a girl, and you two don't know each other right?"

"No."

"Well that's going to change You two would be perfect. Your like so quiet, and he isn't. He will bring you out of that shell."

And he did.

Derrick was the kind of boy who commanded the room, he was in the group of boys that most the girls in the school wished to date. He was superbly popular, as Massie quickly learned as they went to party to party all summer. When girls spoke to her if they ran into her at the mall. When she was referred to as Derrick's girlfriend. The network she got from dating the Derrick Harrington, expanded the whole county.

She was popular.

And it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

When school started, she found herself cut off from her friends, walking with him in the halls, waiting for him after school. She had a role and she played it well.

And her friends noticed.

"I just think that you need to spend time with us!" Kristen yelled at her one night outside of the party room where Dylan's Sweet Sixteen was in full swing. Kristen hit the breaking point after enduring getting ready for the party with Massie, who texted Derrick the whole time, and then sat down talking to him all night when he arrived.

"You don't get it Kristen, I don't want to lose him. We are together and we work. Just be happy for me."

"I can't be happy if you're not happy yourself." Kristen stared her down.

Massie wasn't happy, but she was ready to go back to being 'Massie, who's on the lax team.'

She was 'Massie, Derrick's girlfriend.' And planned on staying that way.

And they did. For the rest of the school year Massie swallowed her pride and pretended as though it didn't bother her that Claire and Alicia still pretended like they didn't know her, that her friends who used to care that she was stuck in a unhealthy relationship; were now riding on her curtails, dating Derrick's friend, that her boyfriend's eyes were already wandering once they hit a year of being together.

It was after the summer. That was when the problems with them started.

Derrick's ex was almost ecstatic to tell her about their conversations.

"Why are you texting Olivia?" Massie cried as they stood in there own little corner at lunch. "And don't say you didn't. I saw it."

Derrick scoffed, "Mass, what is you're problem? I texted another girl, as if you don't talk to other guys. We know you do. Dempsey? We know he texts you everyday. And you appease him."

"Dempsey always had a crush on me. You know that. But I turn him down every time because I love you. I want to be with you."

"Okay, then let it go. My conversation with her is a non-factor." Derrick kissed her check and walked away.

It all changed something.

Throughout junior year, she stopped holding herself back. She quietly pulled away, and talked with other boys and found time to be with her friends. She started thinking that it didn't matter if she was with Derrick. She'd grown into her own, broken out, and could go without him.

And in a few months, she'd be without him.

Sure they went to prom, having to share a limo with Claire and Alicia, who whispered about Massie, Dylan and Kristen the whole night.

They fought at the hotel during the after party, over where they were stood, like they had been doing all spring, before Massie just locked herself in one of the bathrooms the whole night with her friends listening to her cry about how sick and tired she was.

But she didn't break up with him. She wouldn't break up with him. Not until that fall. Not until Cam.

She'd known Cam since freshman year and she kind of had a little crush on him but when he started dating some other girl, Massie just moved on. Cam was one of the boys who ran in the same circle as Derrick, but they weren't very close. Massie never really got to spend time with him, or get to know him.

AP Environmental Science, every morning was her time to get know Cameron Fisher. She and Cam were instant friends. Texted all the time, and shared rides to school, and lunch time. He was already friends with Kristen from being in her English class the year before, and he became friends Dylan just from the time he was spending with them.

They were close and Massie felt her the tightness that she'd been carrying since 10th grade loosen. She had no guilt that she wasn't in constant contact with the college living Derrick. He had made no effort with her either. It was as if she didn't existed. So she didn't mind that Cam had a habit of holding her hand, or kissing her when no one was looking. It was freeing.

But she was happy.

"I just think that you are awesome." Cam told her during a Friday night football game, it was nice and warm, unusual for the Northeast in November. Massie had just finished ranting to him about the failure that her relationship was and that she didn't think that she could handle it anymore. That she didn't know what had changed to make him resent her so much.

"You aren't a robot he can control. You've found a voice. And I don't understand why he can appreciate it." Cam took her hand. "You're a gem. And you know you don't want to be with him."

"Cam, I know you have feelings for me, but it's just I don't think I can be there for you a hundred percent right now. Like my entire high school experience has revolved around Derrick." Massie pushed hair up her and let it fall. "I don't want to hurt you, because I am not good enough."

"What part of 'I think you're awesome' do you not get? It's your senior year Massie. You can't let a douche who could care less ruin that for you," he leaned in, "Make new memories Mass."

Then in a quick round of reasoning, Massie realized that she was better off diving head first into this mess with Cam, and hope that she was right, and Derrick was over her and their relationship. Or, at least they'd never had to deal with one another.

Then she realized that it had been time to get out, and Cam was her chance.

So Massie Block leaned in and kissed Cam Fisher.

And that's how she started being, 'Massie, the girl who could do anything.'

"_But I woke up and grew strong. And I can still go on. And no one can take my pearl"_


End file.
